Natasha Denona "Cranberry" Palette & Marc Jacobs "Gilty" Highlighter | Swatches + Review!

More holiday 2018 items must be reviewed! I feel like I keep saying this, but this year I am really impressed and excited by so many of the releases. The themes and how so many of the products just seem to go together nicely make it extra exciting. Today, we have the Natasha Denona "Cranberry" palette and the new Marc Jacobs highlighter in "Gilty" <3

Natasha Denona "Cranberry" Palette (Limited Edition)

Natasha Denona released the "Cranberry" palette as this years' 5-pan Limited Edition eyeshadow palette for holiday 2018. This is probably my favorite holiday item so far, and while I know that cranberries are really a winter berry and associated woth Christmas, I am really hoping she decides to make this one permanent. Granted, I adore my Aeris palette (one of two of the 5-pan palettes the brand released for holiday 2017) and it's not like I've used that palette up yet so, I probably don't need a backup here (though I am seriously tempted to get a second one).

For those of you who have the Aeris palette from Holiday 2017 (shown in the above pic on the right), one of the shades (called "Nude") has been used again in the Cranberry palette. In the above pic, it is the shade at the top (for both palettes).

While the palette is gorgeous, it is a little deceptive in some ways. A lot of the pictures I'm seeing online at various retail sites are showing the orchid-shaded purple on the far left of the palette (called "Daisy") to be quite bright, almost with a light pink undertone. To me, this shade doesn't appear like this when swatched but is actually quite cool-toned. It's super sparkly and gorgeous and certainly fits the winter-y vibe nicely, but it's not this vibrant, orchid-pink shade that the Instagram filters make it appear to be.

This picture above has the "auto" filter applied (I'm using my trusty Samsung Galaxy S7 which is overloaded with pics of cosmetics and my cat). This filter will make the colors pop a bit more in photos (for reference, the photo below the title header for this product does not have a filter applied). I would say, the true-to-color appearance is somewhere between the two--it's not quite as orchid pinky-purple as when the "auto" filter is on but that first pic was taken in direct sunlight which can wash colors out. I'm being super nit picky here I realize, but just something to keep in mind =)

The cranberry matte shade, called "Sakura" (is 2nd from the left and next to the orchid shade "Daisy") swatched terribly for me but performs beautifully when applying to the eyes. For context, it took me about five layers to get my swatch to be as opaque as it is on my arm in these photos. But when applying to my eyes, it's pigmented and blends beautifully. I've noticed this a lot with the more satin eye shadows of Natasha Denona's; they don't always swatch amazingly but they are super buttery which allows them to blend out beautifully. I was immediately enchanted with this particular shadow and was not let down once I started applying to my eyes. It's gorgeous, so don't rely solely on swatches people!

The other shadows are lovely and perform as you would expect: smooth, buttery, and fantastically sparkly on the eyes. Quite perfect for the Winter season with both warm and cool tones. This, to me, is truly a wonderful holiday product to purchase, and goes so, so well with the below product, the Marc Jacobs Highlighter in "Gilty"!

The "Cranberry" palette is currently sold out on the Sephora website, but in my experience if the "email me" option is still there, that means the product will be restocked <3

Marc Jacobs Holiday Highlighter in "Gilty" (Limited Edition)

Marc Jacobs released a stunning new highlighter for the holidays called the O!Mega Glaze All-Over Foil Luminizer (or "highlighter" as the term most of us are familiar with).

The shade is described as a warm, peachy-gold which I think is accurate. It's dense in formula and velvety to the touch. The packaging is divine, though we wouldn't expect anything less from a Marc Jacobs Beauty product. Note that the top of the case is reflective and you will get fingerprints on it, which is something that normally irritates me to no end but every now and then a product is just worth sacrificing this minor annoyance for <3

A handful of my fair-toned friends and internet-dwellers who actively follow the cosmetics space voiced concern that the shade may be too dark for them, or rather, too gold in tone. So my thoughts on that: I think if you're fair and warm-toned, you won't have a problem as the warm-tone of the highlighter will pull out the warmth in your cheek and skin color. But, it's possible it will be too gold so if that's something you're worried about, you're probably right and something like Becca's "Moonstone" or Hourglasses's Highlighter Stick in "Gold Flash" may be more suitable.

Now if you're fair and cool-toned, I'm unsure how that combination will work as it may look too unnatural. Now of course, this is assuming you want it to look "natural". Makeup is makeup; you wear it however you want! But I just wanted to cover that I am fair-medium in skin tone this highlighter works pretty well for me. Albeit, I don't wear highlighter intending for it to look natural, so the extra gold tones don't bother me.

Here I am wearing both the "Cranberry" palette and the highlighter in "Gilty"

A peek at some of the other holiday 2018 products can be found here, reviews and additional photos, etc. will be coming soon!

Thank you! <3
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